Adolescence is overrated

Look, you can probably ignore this opinion as I did try watching Episode 1 after a steak dinner with two (small) glasses of red wine, and starting at about 9.30pm.   I think everyone can guess the outcome for any human male over the age of 60 - sleep after about (I think) 25 minutes.

But, I don't know - I still think that I saw enough to feel it wasn't engaging.   Sure, lots of work and skill in the continuous shot stuff, but I really prefer those to just be a highlight of a more normally edited thing - too much of it dilutes the effect. 

One thing I definitely did  not understand was why the British police would got to such extremes in arresting a 13 year old boy accused of a knife murder.   The scene played more like they were dealing with an adult terrorist who they feared had a house full of home made bombs.  Why didn't this seem a tad silly to TV critics?

It doesn't take much to Google up an article that agrees with me:

First and foremost Netflix’s Adolescence is a fictional drama that does not claim to be wholly accurate of what would actually happen in similar real-life cases. That being said, even the very first scene was somewhat questionable when it comes to police procedures.

“But if they found the body at 10.30 pm why are they waiting until the morning to arrest him?” Steven told Time Out. “That’s one thing the police are really good at. They move fast. Is the raid realistic? I used to do raids like this and if we’d had firearms officers in this situation, we would have looked at each other and gone: ‘This is a 13-year-old boy, we don’t need two big lads with a shield.’ Yes, a knife is a deadly weapon, but they have baton rounds (rubber bullets). You would have so many things to de-escalate in that situation.”

There was also the lack of “evidence preserv​ation” and situational recordings that could have landed DI Bascombe in legal trouble in the real world.

He explained: “But the search was poor. The police use specialist search teams. You literally do training for it. You get paid extra money. You get brought in at three am in the morning for murders. You don’t throw mail on the floor.

“You don’t pour shit on the bed like it was in the 1970s and rummage through it. It would all be documented with cameras. DC Bascombe has his camera off in the van and the solicitor would say: ‘Why’d you turn your camera off? What did you say to my client?’ Nowadays, a police officer’s word is good for nothing if it’s not recorded.”

 I know the show has been criticised from the Right due to "race-swapping", and no doubt a lot of the criticism from that side of politics is not going to be fair.  However, this person does give a nuanced critique, arguing that the lead character doesn't have the characteristics he has observed in his experience of young gang murderers.   

I don't think I need continue watching it...